At today's House Select Committee on the Coronavirus, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) spoke to Dr. Anthony Fauci about his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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NewsTranscript
00:00The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic will come to order.
00:07I want to welcome everyone this morning.
00:10Pursuant to Committee on Oversight and Accountability Rule 7D, members of the Committee may participate
00:17in today's Select Subcommittee hearing for purposes of questions.
00:22At the discretion of the Chair and pursuant to an agreement with the Committee on Energy
00:25and Commerce, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee
00:31on Oversight and Investigations, Mr. Morgan Griffith and Ms. Kathy Castor are permitted
00:37to participate in today's hearings for the purposes of questions and give three-minute
00:42opening statements.
00:45Without objection, pursuant to Clause 4A3A of House Resolution 5 and Clause 2J2C of House
00:53Rule 11, the Chair may recognize staff of the Select Subcommittee for questions for
00:59equal periods of time, not to exceed 30 minutes.
01:04Pursuant to Rule 7D of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Mr. Jordan and Mr. Moskowitz,
01:10members of the full Committee may participate in today's hearing for the purposes of questions.
01:17I would like to remind members that the issues we are debating today are important ones and
01:23members feel deeply about.
01:25While vigorous disagreement is part of the legislative process, members are reminded
01:30that we must adhere to established standards of decorum in debate.
01:35There is a reminder that it is a violation of House rules and the rules of this Committee
01:40to engage in personalities regarding other members or to question the motives of a colleague.
01:50Remarks of that type are not permitted by the rules and are not in keeping with the
01:54best traditions of our Committee.
01:57The Chair will enforce these rules of decorum at all times and urges all members to be mindful
02:03of their remarks.
02:04Finally, without objection, the Chair may declare a recess at any time.
02:10I now recognize myself for the purpose of making an opening statement.
02:14Good morning and welcome, Dr. Fauci.
02:17First, I want to thank you for your decades of public service.
02:22You served your country through multiple epidemics, pandemics, and health crises.
02:28I do want to say I'm sorry about the threats that you have received.
02:32As someone who has been shot at and received threats as well, my heart goes out to you.
02:37This should never happen in America.
02:41Regardless of any disagreements we may have, you chose to serve, and I want to extend our
02:46appreciation and gratitude.
02:49I want to thank you publicly for working with our Dr. Skokis during Operation Warp Speed
02:55and the time you spent with us and Dr. Collins.
02:59I also want to thank you for your willing cooperation with the Select Subcommittee.
03:05You have voluntarily sat for more than 14 hours of testimony and are appearing voluntarily
03:10today.
03:12This is more than we can say about other witnesses we have called, and we appreciate it.
03:16Dr. Fauci, we're here to investigate the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore lessons learned, positive
03:24or negative, and to better prepare for future pandemics.
03:29Simply put, America cannot move forward, though, without looking back.
03:34We must know what went right and what went wrong in order to best ingrain proficiencies
03:40and remedy deficiencies.
03:43In 15 months, the Select Subcommittee has sent more than 115 investigative letters,
03:49conducted 30 transcribed interviews, resulted in hundreds of hours of testimony, held, including
03:57today, 27 hearings or briefings, and reviewed more than 1.5 million pages of documents.
04:05We aren't here to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
04:08That's not the intent.
04:10We are following the facts, holding wrongdoers accountable, and planning for a better, more
04:15prepared future.
04:18Beginning early in 2020, you became the figurehead of public health.
04:22There were drinks named after you, you got bobbleheads made in your likeness, you were
04:26on the cover of Vogue throughout the first pitch at a Washington Nationals game.
04:31Almost overnight, you became a celebrity and a household name, in addition to being a public
04:37health official.
04:39Americans from coast to coast and beyond listened to your words, and this is where I think we
04:44could have done better, and this goes to both sides of the aisle.
04:48We should have been more precise.
04:50We should have used words and phrases that are accurate and not misleading, and we should
04:55have been honest, especially about what we didn't know.
04:59Dr. Fauci, I'm not a virologist, but I am a physician, and like most physicians, we
05:04are constantly learning, which is why we do continuing medical education, and we always
05:10seek new information.
05:13We learn new things based on new data, and we want to give our patients the best possible
05:18care based on new findings and improvements in science.
05:23At a time when you were prompting the proximal origin paper, whose focus was to, quote, disprove
05:30the lab leak theory, end quote, I was in lockdown researching with another physician in Ohio
05:36to try and understand the pathology, the affected physiology, and what treatments worked, and
05:44even how to diagnose COVID before we had specific COVID tests.
05:50My friend even made a phone call to an infectious disease doctor in China looking for help.
05:57As well, during that time, we discovered the Barak-Xi 2015 article on creating a chimera
06:03using gain-of-function type technology.
06:07While policy decisions should have been based on scientific data, some frankly were not.
06:13The burdensome six-foot social distancing rule did not have sufficient scientific report.
06:20In your words, it just sort of appeared.
06:24Distancing made sense, but the six feet was arbitrary.
06:29Even Dr. Collins said he still hasn't seen any empirical evidence to support the six-foot
06:35rule, a rule that shut down schools and businesses, a rule that will have negative ramifications
06:42for decades.
06:45As the pandemic wore on, more mandates also just sort of appeared.
06:50But the American public didn't get to see the scientific data to support these mandates.
06:57Americans were aggressively bullied, shamed, and silenced for merely questioning or debating
07:05issues such as social distancing, masks, vaccines, or the origins of COVID.
07:13Many Americans were willing to comply with the 15 days to slow the spread and understood
07:19the necessity of banning travel from certain countries in an attempt to slow down the virus.
07:25But many Americans became very frustrated when components of those 15 days stretched
07:31into years.
07:33And it should not have been the case that Americans were forced to comply with oppressive
07:37mandates when those who chose to illegally cross our southern border were not.
07:44Or when Governor Newsom or Governor Whitmer were throwing parties at nice restaurants.
07:51Not a good look.
07:54Americans do not hate science, but Americans know hypocrisy when they see it.
08:00Dr. Fauci, under your leadership, the United States health agencies adopted specific policy
08:05aims as a single dogmatic truth without the benefit of debate, out of a desire for a single
08:13narrative.
08:14Dr. Fauci, you once said, if you disagree with me, you disagree with science.
08:19Science doesn't belong to any one person.
08:22I was never taught that science turns a blind eye to hypotheses.
08:27They serve to be proven or disproven, and done so with irrefutable facts, if able.
08:35It was interesting that you chose not to pursue an aggressive and transparent scientific
08:40investigation of both natural spillover and lab leak.
08:45We have been investigating both hypotheses.
08:49You testified before the Select Subcommittee in your transcribed interview that the lab
08:53leak theory was not a conspiracy theory.
08:58You embraced the proximal origin letter.
09:00It wasn't necessarily a full peer-reviewed research paper, but you embraced proximal
09:05origin letter and you shared it with the public from the White House lawn.
09:10You stated during your transcribed interview that you did not review published articles
09:14that considered a potential lab leak of COVID-19.
09:19This is especially concerning if the works in question were conducted at a more risky
09:25and less safe BSL-2 lab.
09:29Nevertheless, any dissent from your chosen scientific position was immediately labeled
09:35as anti-science.
09:38Anything less than complete submission to the mandates could cost you your livelihood,
09:44your ability to go into public, your child's ability to attend school.
09:51Families were thrown off planes and shamed when their two-year-olds struggled to wear
09:56a mask.
09:58Children with disabilities lost access to therapy that they and their families depended
10:03on.
10:05Students were out of the classroom and told to attend school remotely, even when the science
10:10clearly demonstrated it was safe for them to go back in the classroom.
10:16This harmed low-income students the most.
10:19And how were single-parent households supposed to teach their own children and work at the
10:24same time?
10:26Dr. Fauci, you oversaw one of the most invasive regimes of domestic policy the U.S. has ever
10:33seen, including mask mandates, school closures, coerced vaccination, social distancing of
10:40six feet, and more.
10:43We've learned many lessons.
10:45Our early fear and confusion was understandable.
10:48COVID-19 was clearly a novel virus.
10:55Under your leadership, NIAID allowed disgraced characters like Dr. Peter Daszak to use millions
11:02in taxpayer dollars to conduct risky gain-of-function experiments in Wuhan, China.
11:08The actions of EcoHealth and Dr. Daszak call into question the integrity of NIAID's policies
11:17and procedures as a whole.
11:19As well as your role, Dr. Fauci, as NIAID's director, you did sign off on his research
11:25grant.
11:28We need to know why Dr. David Morins, your direct report for more than two decades, assisted
11:35Dr. Daszak in avoiding oversight and scrutiny and said that you were involved.
11:41Your senior advisor, and seemingly your chief of staff, repeatedly attempted to evade transparency
11:47laws to shield information from public scrutiny.
11:52We have seen your officials from your office, in their own writing, discussing breaking
11:57federal law, deleting official records, and sharing private government information with
12:02grant recipients.
12:05The office you directed and those serving under your leadership chose to flout the law
12:11and bragged about it.
12:14Why did you allow your office to be unaccountable to the American people?
12:17You were the highest paid person in the government.
12:21This makes you more accountable to the people, not less.
12:24Dr. Fauci, whether intentional or not, you became so powerful that any disagreements
12:30the public had with you were forbidden and censored on social and most legacy media
12:35time and time again.
12:37This is why so many Americans became so angry, because this was fundamentally un-American.
12:43If I make a mistake, I answer to the people of Ohio who elected me, and to my own conscience.
12:52When you and your agency made mistakes, Dr. Fauci, what happened?
12:57We all need to be held accountable.
13:00Because it's as simple as saying we were wrong.
13:05You took the position that you presented the science.
13:09Your words came across to so many people as final and as infallible in matters pertaining
13:16to the pandemic.
13:18But such rigid demands of an ideologically diverse people, like Americans, shattered
13:24public trust in American health institutions.
13:29Because I said so has never been good enough for Americans, and it never will be.
13:35It's built into the American spirit.
13:38We have a thirst for information, a drive for advancement.
13:42Americans were first in flight.
13:44We landed on the moon.
13:46We've cured diseases.
13:48You've been part of that.
13:51And we made innumerable discoveries and explorations that forever changed humanity.
13:57Americans do not want to be indoctrinated.
14:00They want to be educated.
14:02And they prefer to make their health decisions in conjunction with the doctor that they know
14:07and trust.
14:09To be successful, our federal public health institutions must be accountable to the people
14:15again.
14:16To be successful, our health organizations must do what they are supposed to do.
14:25And Americans.
14:27I look forward to a robust and on-topic discussion.
14:31I thank you.
14:32I would now like to recognize Ranking Member Ruiz for the purpose of making an opening
14:36statement.